


Yokai, Friends and a Haunted House

by AristocatSlippers



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, This is pretty much a dumb comedy fluff fic, so enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 20:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17251043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AristocatSlippers/pseuds/AristocatSlippers
Summary: Every now and then, Nishimura has ideas, sometimes silly but often fun ideas, and when he has access to an old house - maybe a haunted house, who knows? - he runs away with the idea, dragging his friends along for the night to go and investigate the place, looking for ghosts. Of course, bringing Takashi along means also bringing along yokai. The Dog's Circle follow them along, with a plan to give an entertaining haunting.





	Yokai, Friends and a Haunted House

**Author's Note:**

> A fic for my natsume yuujinchou secret santa 2018, I hope you all enjoy

Nishimura shoves the camera into his hands with an enthusiasm that Takashi cannot deny and a mischievous grin that he is bound to indulge. Takashi looks at him questioningly, glancing between Nishimura and the camera with confusion. 

“There's a haunted house in the next town over, my uncle’s cousin’s best friend just bought it recently,” he declares with excitement, swinging dangerously on his chair, his grin growing impossibly wider, “We're going to investigate it tonight, you can be the cameraman.”

“Um, you're not being serious are you?” Takashi asks nervously, after all, there's the chance that the house is haunted, just not by ghosts. He'd rather not have to deal with any unsavoury yokai that they might encounter there with his friends around - or in general, but especially when Nishimura and Kitamoto are there. 

Nishimura pats him on the back reassuringly, “Don't worry Natsume, we know you're a scaredy cat, we'll protect you from the ghosts. And bugs! Any bugs that are there we'll fight off for you, okay?”

Turning to Tanuma and Kitamoto for help, Takashi feels the sting of betrayal when he's met with Tanuma sheepishly smiling, rubbing a hand behind his neck and Kitamoto just shrugs at him, reaching over and grabbing the leg of Nishimura’s chair, firmly keeping it on the floor in front of its desk - apparently, they'd already been convinced. 

“If it helps,” Kitamoto interjects, “you can bring your ugly cat along too.”

Takashi flounders for a response, refusing would probably seem strange but going could be dangerous - plus he might not even get permission. “Maybe, I'll ask Touko-san if I can have permission to go.” He says hesitantly, hopefully she'll say no. 

Picking up Takashi's school bag and taking the camera from Takashi to hand safely to Kitamoto, Nishimura quickly stands, chair screeching against the floor behind him and nods towards the door, “Okay, Natsume,” he says cheerfully, “Let's go ask Touko-san now!”

He grabs Takashi's hand and pulls him up from his seat, running and dragging him through the door. Takashi stumbles along behind him, he can't quite find his feet. “Nishimura! It's lunchtime, we're not meant to leave.”

Nishimura waves Takashi's worries off casually, “Don't worry Natsume, I promise we'll be back in time for class,” Nishimura says, still tugging Takashi along behind him in the corridor. 

Takashi is pulled through the corridors and down the stairs of the school, he ignores the questioning looks from other students and everyone who tells them not to run, it's not like Nishimura is listening to them anyway. The school gate is locked. Nishimura’s run trails to a stop and they stand in front of the gates, their path blocked by the obstacle. Nishimura looks up at the gate disappointed, Takashi sighs in relief - he won't have to go after all. His relief dissipates easily when Nishimura smirks at him, pulling a bobby pin out of his pocket and taking a hold of the lock. He fiddles around with the pin for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows and biting his lip in concentration, then Takashi hears a click and Nishimura proudly presents the unlocked gate to him, taking Takashi's hand again and tugging him into the streets and outside the gate. 

Once they're a few streets away, Nishimura lets go of his hand. Takashi would go back if it weren't for the fact that his school bag is held hostage by his friend - he'd leave it if the book of friends wasn't in it. It is, though, and Takashi reluctantly complies, following Nishimura all the way back to the Fujiwara’s house. He hesitates outside for a minute, but opens the door when Nishimura urges him to.

“Touko-san, I'm home.” He calls out into the quiet house. 

Touko doesn't respond, perhaps she didn't hear him or perhaps she had gone out, either way, Takashi sees an opportunity.

“Maybe she's gone shopping… I guess we can't ask her.” Takashi decides, maybe he can really get out of going if she isn't back in time. 

Nishimura shakes his head at him, “Or maybe she's hanging the laundry out back.” Nishimura quiets, putting a finger to his lips and listening. 

Though it's only faint, Touko is singing; a small and peaceful tune that sounds from the back garden. Nishimura drags Takashi around the side of the house and stops beside the washing line, after a moment she turns. Noticing the two of them, Touko pauses folding the sheet she had just taken down.

“Takashi-kun, Nishimura-san, good afternoon,” she says pleasantly, “but shouldn't you two be in school?”

Takashi glances guiltily away from her, staring off into the distance as Nishimura answers her. 

“It's lunchtime, so we snuck out,” Nishimura tells Touko, “We came here since we wanted to ask your permission for something. Don’t worry, we’ll go back in time for class!” He adds, just as her expression starts to morph into the stern one reserved for telling Takashi off.

The distance looks an awful lot like a cat trying to crawl in the kitchen window and covertly steal some food - it's a bit of a redundant scheme given that Touko is outside, though. Takashi quickly retrieves the cat before he can succeed, shushing sensei with a hissed whisper when the cat yelps. He returns to the conversation just in time to hear Touko give permission for him to go, so long as an adult goes with them. Nishimura falters, they don’t have an adult to come with them. Nishimura narrows his eyes at Takashi, apparently he isn’t doing a good job of hiding his almost triumphant smile.

“Ah, I know,” Touko says thoughtfully, “Why don’t you ask Natori-san to go with you children? You know that spirits can be dangerous so I don't want you children going without an adult. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. In fact, I’ll call him now.” 

Taking the half full laundry basket with her, Touko motions for them to follow her inside the house. Nishimura happily follows, though Takashi protests and reluctantly drags his feet, arguing that Natori would probably be working. He doesn’t even need to wait around whilst Touko calls to know that Natori will say yes, how unfair. Sensei listens curiously to Touko as she explains about the haunted house, she doesn't think it will really be haunted at all but still, she'd be happier if Natori went. Takashi worries that the yokai is getting ideas, though he doesn’t say anything.

“Alright Takashi-kun,” Touko turns to him, putting the phone down, “Natori-san agreed, so you can go tonight but please be careful, okay?”

Takashi nods, “Yes, I will, I promise not to worry you.”

Nishimura winks at him, grinning and giving him a thumbs up as they are shooed back to school before lunchtime ends, Takashi simply groans.

: : :

As promised, Natori meets them outside the haunted house at seven o'clock sharp. The man makes no attempts to disguise his identity and Takashi makes no attempts to hide his slight annoyance. Natori smiles good-naturedly through Taki’s and Kitamoto’s excitement and even Nishimura’s starstruck fanboying, in fact the man goes so far as to sign autographs. Takashi hangs back with Tanuma and thanks his lucky stars that the only ones around to mob the actor are his own friends. And Tanuma, at least, is calm in the presence of the celebrity, even if he’s still a fan of his films. Perhaps it’s because he and Natori have already met, though it’s also certainly possible that he is simply preoccupied by the likely shadow-y cluster of yokai that follow Takashi around, with Nyanko-sensei waddling drunkenly in the lead. Takashi sighs, whatever they’re up to, it can only be a pain.

The house is old and decrepit with ivy haphazardly sprawling across crumbling brick, growing in front of boarded up windows and inside the building where the windows are smashed. Faded, peeling, red paint adorns the locked door, not that that’s a problem to Nishimura - somehow, he has a key; Takashi decides not to doubt his methods and clumsily starts filming. He relaxes once Nishimura gets started, explaining what they’re doing - he’s planning to put the video up on YouTube later, for fun.

Natori hangs back with Tanuma and Takashi, watching with an amused half smile, “Go ahead and have fun Natsume, I’m not sensing anything and Hiiragi already took a look over the place. There’s no yokai here except the ones trailing behind you in a disorganised line.” Natori reassures him, “They look kind of drunk, mind.”

“Yes, I noticed.” Takashi says drily, though the corners of his mouth twitch just slightly upwards. The dog’s club are making it their mission to provide an entertaining haunting, apparently. It’s fine so long as they don’t get carried away, though he imagines they’ll pass out drunk before they even get to the front door, barring Hinoe and Chobihige. 

Tanuma squints vaguely behind Takashi, looking for the aforementioned yokai but gives up, “All I can see are blurry outlines and shadows, what are they doing?”

“Drinking,” Natori laughs, he pulls out a spare pair of glasses, handing them to Tanuma who, with some confusion, places them on his face, “They’ll help you to see a little bit better, I think.” Natori explains.

“Yeah, it’s a little bit clearer. Only a little bit though.” Tanuma says, looking once again toward the yokai.

Takashi begins to protest, being able to see ayakashi is a dangerous thing, but Natori simply holds up a placacting hand, “The only yokai here are friends, Natsume, it’s okay.”

Nishimura pops his head back out the front door, looking at the three in annoyance, pouting, “Natsume,” he drawls, reaching out a hand to tug petulantly on Takashi’s sleeve, “How are you supposed to film all this if you don’t come inside?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Takashi laughs, he holds the camera back up for filming and follows Nishimura inside, with the yokai that had been trailing after him rushing ahead inside, eager to begin their haunting.

Inside is cold, dark and messy - it’s creepy to say the least, with half broken toys strewn across rotting floorboards and some kind of a shrine to a life size porcelain doll sits in the far end of the room. Takashi wonders if he should have just stayed in the hallway. He films Nishimura as he picks his way over to the strange shrine to join Taki and Kitamoto in investigating the doll. Tripping over one of the toys, Nishimura falls nearly flat on his face. Takashi manages to catch the event on video and despite their laughter, Kitamoto and Taki offer their friend a hand up to get him safely to the creepy collection of offerings to the doll. Takashi, Tanuma and Natori carefully join them, fortunately, they don't trip. Once they're all seated around it in a circle, Nishimura motions for Takashi to start filming again.

“Okay guys, we found a creepy doll shrine,” Nishimura begins, Takashi pans over it with the camera as he speaks, “So we're going to use this,” he holds up something akin to a small black radio, “To try and talk to any spirits in the room.”

“What is that?” Tanuma asks curiously. 

“It's a spirit box, it's supposed to pick up some kind of electromagnetic wave thingy from the ghosts. That way we can talk to them.” Nishimura explains with a mischievous grin.

“Are you sure it'll really work, Nishimura-kun?” Taki asks, placing her face close to the little box to inspect it.

Nishimura nods confidently.

Kitamoto raises an eyebrow at him, “And how much did you spend on that?”

“I spent way too much on that thing,” Natori says, “But I have enough cash for it.”

“You bought it, Natori-san?” Takashi splutters, surprised.

“Yeah, I thought it would be more fun if we had proper equipment.” Natori explains. 

Well it would perhaps be more fun for Nishimura and Kitamoto at least, maybe even for Tanuma and Taki. They fall silent and Nishimura presses the button on his spirit box. It crackles full of white noise.

“If there are any spirits in the room, please say something,” Nishimura calls out.

After a moment more of white noise, something like a voice crackles through the spirit box, “D-… y-... -ve… -n-... sak-...”

Takashi and Natori hear it much clearer, of course, one of them is hiding somewhere in the room, then. The two can't help but double over laughing, of course that's what they'd ask. Natori wipes a tear from his eye and, when he's finally calmed down enough to breathe, addresses the confused stares from the four who didn't understand the question.

“They asked if we had any sake!” Natori wheezes out between laughs, garnering giggles from Taki, Tanuma, Nishimura and Kitamoto.

“Sorry ghost-san,” Taki calls out with an amused smile, cupping her hands around her mouth, “But we don't have any sake!”

A muffled curse word comes from the spirit box and the six devolve into laughter again. When Takashi finally looks again and stops laughing, he swears the doll is in a different position to before. He focuses the camera on the doll, the others watch it with a similar, peculiar curiosity. Its head snaps to face Takashi. He yells and nearly drops the camera.

“Uwah! It moved!” Nishimura shouts, scrambling backwards.

“Give me sake!” the voice no longer comes from the spirit box but from the doll as it slowly moves itself to stand and walks towards the group.

Without a second thought, they all break into a desperate run to get away from the doll. Takashi knows that it's simply one of the middle class yokai delivering the promised haunting; that doesn't make it any less creepy. He even encourages Nishimura to barricade the door. He jumps again when it starts banging on the wall.

“Let's move onto a different room then…” Kitamoto says hesitantly, glancing towards the kitchen and ignoring the banging.

“Alright everyone,” Nishimura declares, turning to face the camera with enthusiasm, “We’re going to investigate the kitchen next, let’s go Taki-san! Natsume make sure you film this, okay?”

Taki enters first and immediately shrieks. Nishimura quickly follows her in worry, then shrieks himself, both back out of the kitchen in horror. Takashi, with a great degree of fear and flanked by Tanuma and Kitamoto, steps into the kitchen, if only to film whatever scared the two before them. 

“A BODY?!” The three scream, backing up into each other, Takashi and Kitamoto both cling to Tanuma, though he's equally as spooked.

In the corner of the room lies a young girl with strange markings on her face and wounds all over her arms surrounded by smashed bottles and a pool of blood. The girl is completely motionless too, her chest doesn't even seem to be rising to breathe. Takashi wonders if he should call the police, though he's shaking too much to even get the phone out of his pocket. The more he stares, pale-faced and horrified, the more he notices the familiar presence and appearance. It's Sensei. And he'd managed to scare the living daylights out of him too. In that case, Takashi begins videoing again, this time actually capturing Nyanko on tape. He hisses Sensei's name just as Kitamoto begins to investigate with Nishimura watching fearfully over his shoulder. The girl wakes with a jolt and disappears from view, replaced by a great white beast that nearly squishes Takashi. Kitamoto and Nishimura both leap away from the spot where the girl had previously lay. Even Taki and Tanuma startle in fright. Natori stifles a snicker - unsuccessfully, given that Takashi can hear it.

“Na-Natsume! It’s a ghost, it’s really a ghost!” Nishimura blubbers, latching onto Takashi and sniffling whilst Kitamoto latches onto Tanuma again.

Takashi simply glares at Nyanko until he vacates the room through a window, leaving a gust of wind in his wake, Nishimura yells again when it whips up his hair and Takashi slowly walks him out of the room, still holding up the camera to film everything. He wonders whether Nishimura will still post this online, given that he’s the one being the scaredy cat. He hadn’t expected it to be so fun, even if his friends are terrified. 

“It’s a test of courage, right?” Natori asks, pushing himself off the wall that he leans against with amusement, “Don’t tell me you’re going to give up before you’ve explored the entire house?”

“Of course not!” Nishimura snaps back, no longer scared, “Come on Natsume, let’s go upstairs, everyone else too!” He grabs both Kitamoto’s and Takashi’s sleeves and pulls them along with him. 

Upstairs is practically pitch black, it’s so dark that they can’t see anything until Taki and Kitamoto pull out torches, lighting the landing in two patches, Takashi turns on the night vision function of the video camera and sweeps over the area. The walls are covered in scratches and shredded wallpaper and the carpet is worn, almost non-existent in places, so much so that semi-rotten floorboards can be seen through it. What did people even do here to make it look like this? 

Something shows up on camera and Takashi yelps in surprise, “Uwah! There’s something there!” He points towards the doorway across the landing, pale faced and clinging to Tanuma again. Tanuma comfortingly pats his arm. Takashi senses some degree of pity in the action. He’s not that much of a scaredy cat, is he? 

Taki and Kitamoto shine their torches in the doorway and stop short, “...Hey, Natsume… Isn’t that your ugly cat?” Kitamoto questions.

“Nyanko-sensei!” Taki happily shouts, surging forward and picking up the cat before he can escape, squeezing him with vigor despite his protests, “So cute!”

“Okay, let’s check out this bedroom for ghosts as well,” Nishimura says confidently, stepping into the bedroom that Sensei came out of with Kitamoto’s torch lighting up the room for him.

The room is decidedly normal looking, especially given the rest of the house, and would be more so if it wasn’t full of drunken yokai. Hinoe, Chobihige, Kappa and the middle class sit around the room, noticeably drunk and with plenty of remaining sake. Takashi keeps a straight face and pretends that he doesn’t see them. Not that it works, the second they see him, Takashi is swept up by the middle class yokai and carried in the air by them. Irritating as usual, what else could he have expected when they’re drunk, though he would have preferred for them to leave him alone in front of Nishimura and Kitamoto - he has a secret to keep.

“It’s Natsume-sama, come drink with us!” The yokai encourage, much to Takashi’s chagrin.

“Kitamoto! Ghosts have Natsume! What are we gonna do?!” Nishimura yells, charging into the room to retrieve Takashi. Kitamoto comes with and the two grab Takashi’s arms and legs, tugging him unknowingly away from the over enthusiastic yokai.

Once Takashi is ‘safe’ the two refuse to completely let go of him.

“Let’s leave, we’re not letting the ghosts take Natsume.” Kitamoto decides, pulling Takashi towards the door.

Tanuma takes the camera and films himself and Taki, closing off the video, “Before our friend gets abducted by ghosts, we're going to wrap it up here with our haunted house investigation.”

“Well, we can definitely say that it's haunted, and that we're never coming back, haha.” Taki chimes in brightly, still hugging Nyanko.

“Hope you enjoyed!” Natori adds, pushing his way into the frame and waving goodbye to the camera with a sparkling smile. 

Tanuma snaps the video camera shut and turns it off, placing it back in the small bag Nishimura had brought for it, “We should all stay at Natsume's house tonight, if we're allowed, to make sure he isn't kidnapped by spirits.” Tanuma voices the worried thought firmly.

Takashi doesn't even try arguing, of course he'd worry it was some kind of dangerous yokai, he'll have to explain at some point. Though for now he has to think of a way to convince Nishimura and Kitamoto that it's okay - they're even inviting Natori to the sleepover. Maybe he should just give up, he can't help but smile fondly when they look so happy and excited to be sleeping over. Takashi calls Touko and Natori calls two cabs. He takes the opportunity of the cab ride home to whisper to Tanuma and Taki that it was only the dog's circle, a bunch of friendly yokai. Then he takes the opportunity for a nap.

: : : 

When they arrive, Touko has set up five futons for the boys in Takashi's room and one for Taki in the living room along with a bunch of snacks set out on the coffee table for them. Takashi thanks her with a smile as she fondly reaches over to pat his head. The six gather around the camera to watch back the video. The footage is amateurish to say the least, evidently the work of an unsteady hand. It does, however, clearly show the doll and the disappearing girl. Nishimura decides to post it anyway, after all, it was still fun.

They don't stay up much later, though they play some games for a little while, all the earlier screaming was exhausting and Takashi is happy to shuffle up to bed after wishing Taki a good night. His futon has never felt so comfortable.

There's a foot in Takashi's face when he wakes up, and an elbow pushing into his side. The foot belongs to Natori and the elbow to Tanuma, both serve to ruin the start of what could be a lovely morning until he moves them off of him. The two stir and wake, unfortunately, though Takashi is glad not to be the only one up.

“Do you think the video got any views last night?” Tanuma asks, rubbing his eyes and yawning. 

“We could check,” Natori suggests, pulling out his smartphone and avoiding the two boys still sleeping as he comes to sit next to Takashi and Tanuma.

Surprisingly, their video does seem to have quite a lot of views and even a fair amount of comments, though when Natori clicks on them something becomes obvious.

“Hey Natori-san, aren't all these comments just about you?” Takashi asks with some slight irritation.

Natori just laughs. Takashi admits, it had been a fun little investigation, even with his yokai friends providing a strange kind of haunting. He really did have fun.


End file.
